“Those in whom the spirit remains” - On building our nation, the IDF, and religious education
Parashat Hashavua - Parashat Pinchas 5785
Rabbi Eliezer Haim Shenvald
In memory of my father, my teacher, Rabbi Moshe Shenvald, of blessed memory הֲרֵינִי כַּפָּרַת מִשְׁכָּבוֹ - May I be an atonement for his resting soul.
In recent years, we have faced complex challenges in securing the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and in shaping its future: identity, security, societal, economic, and international challenges. Often, these challenges appear to us as unique and unprecedented.
However, to act wisely, we must rely on those survivors in whom "the spirit remains", people with historical perspective and life experience, who view present-day challenges proportionally.
My father, R’ Moshe Shenvald z”l, who passed away about a week ago at the age of 100, was one of those survivors. He gave me, and all who had the merit to know him, the opportunity to draw from his experience, vast knowledge, and broad perspective to deeply understand current challenges. Placing them in proportion to those of the past, emphasizing how to confront them best.
My father was born in Hungary in 1925. As a young man, he studied at the teacher’s seminary in Budapest. When the Nazis invaded Hungary, he was deported to Auschwitz and from there to the forced labor camps of Gross-Rosen. After miraculously surviving the Holocaust, he helped establish, along with a group of spiritually strong young Holocaust survivors, the “Bricha” *1 organization for Jewish youth from Hungary. Eventually, they too made Aliyah to Eretz Israel.
He was deeply familiar with security challenges. In the early 1950s, together with other spirited religious pioneers, he helped establish the IDF Military Rabbinate under Rabbi Shlomo Goren’s z”l leadership and served as a military chaplain. My father participated in Israel’s wars up through the Yom Kippur War. It was a small group that, in the early days of the state and the IDF, had to deal with complex security, religious, and social challenges, at a time when not all IDF commanders viewed their efforts to strengthen Jewish identity in the army favorably and sometimes even tried to limit their activity.
When we, too, had to face similar challenges, which seemed to us unprecedented, we were blessed with his ability to provide proper emphasis and proportion in light of past experiences.
He also understood in depth the challenges of religious education. Throughout his life, he was an educator committed to faith, Torah, and mitzvot. In the early days of the state, along with a small group of visionary and inspired individuals, he laid the foundations of the religious educational system. They worked with humility and modesty, dealing with complex challenges, and sometimes even opposition from those who did not like the establishment of an independent, state-supported religious education system.
He officially began as a teacher in Sde Yaakov and Afula. Later, he was asked to establish the "Shaul HaMelech" school in Beit She’an.
The highlight of his educational and public life was in Tzfat. He and my mother, Mrs. Nechama Shenvald Z”L, were asked to move to Tzfat and rebuild its religious education infrastructure. In a time of immigration and ingathering of the exiles קִבּוּץ גָּלֻיּוֹת, he had to deal with significant challenges, sometimes in opposition to the municipal system, which tried to curtail his efforts.
My father re-established the religious school, naming it “Berav.” He helped found the religious high school in the city and eventually established the "Ha’Ari" school. Together with my late mother, he gathered a spirited quality group of educators, who formed the basis of the religious educational system in Tzfat. All this was done with seriousness, modesty, and humility. For his educational contributions, he was awarded the “Yakir HaChinuch HaDati” (Award for excellence in Jewish education) in 1993.
Over the years, graduates of these institutions became part of the community, integrated into the city’s public systems, and contributed to shaping its character.
Even when our generation faced similar challenges, which seemed to us to be unprecedented, we were blessed to receive from him the historical perspective and proportional context of the past.
He and fellow Holocaust survivors from Hungary established the "Agudat Achim" synagogue in Tzfat to commemorate the martyrs of Hungarian Jewry. For decades, he served there as the Shofar blower. (בעל תּוֹקֵעַ) He later made a significant contribution to the establishment of the “Museum of Hungarian-Speaking Jewish Heritage” in Tzfat. He was awarded the "Yakir Ir Tzfat" (Distinguished Citizen of Tzfat) award in 2021for his contribution to the city and its educational system.
His spiritual depth, vast knowledge of Torah, Judaism, and history, witnessed and studied, enabled him to evaluate present challenges with proper proportion and to rekindle the spirit in others.
In our Parasha, Moshe asks for a successor:
אִישׁ עַל הָעֵדָה אֲשֶׁר יֵצֵא לִפְנֵיהֶם וַאֲשֶׁר יָבֹא לִפְנֵיהֶם וַאֲשֶׁר יוֹצִיאֵם וַאֲשֶׁר יְבִיאֵם
“…appoint a man over the congregation who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in…” (Bamidbar 27:16-17)
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch emphasizes that these qualities are required of any public leader, not just a military one:
"אשר - יצא לפניהם וגו'. "איננו מורה רק על הנהגת הצבא בשעת קרב. וכו'. הוא ביטוי לכלל פעילותו של אדם שהועמד בראשו של עם. וכו'. לא רק את סגולת איש החיל במלחמה אלא את הכשרון הכללי לפעילות ציבורית מכל סוג" (שם פס' יז).
“Who may go out before them...”- This does not refer only to military leadership in battle, but to the general public activity of one placed at the head of a people... Not only the valor of a warrior, but also the general aptitude for public leadership of every kind.” (Ibid 17)
Of Joshua it is said: אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר רוּחַ בּוֹ “a man in whom is the Spirit” (Bamidbar 27:18)
"כרוח נושבת הנעלמת מן העין והניכרת רק בתוצאות פעילותה ככח נע ומניע וכו'. וכך גם אנחנו אומרים על אדם שהוא "איש רוח" אם יש בו שאר רוח במידה יתירה. וכו'. שלא נחלשה על ידי החומר העכור של הגוף"
“Like a blowing wind, invisible to the eye but recognized through the results of its movement and influence... So, too, we describe a person as a ‘man of spirit’ when he possesses exceptional inspiration, unaffected by the dense material of the body” (R. S. R. Hirsch, ibid).
My father and his comrades saw with pleasure how the younger generation continue along the path and face the challenges with great spirit.
*1 - Bricha בריחה, (lit. escape, flight), also called the Bericha Movement, was the underground organized effort that helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape Europe post-World War II to the British Mandate for Palestine in violation of the White Paper of 1939. It ended when Israel declared independence and annulled the White Paper.